budgeting, recruitment and cost control are being followed
your employees.

They want to stay on the right side of the boss don`t they?

They`re not likely to rock the boat. But more than that they

don`t see why they need to do what you say unless you do what you

say too.

The staff may influence you to a certain extent. But when the

buck stops it`s with you.

Maybe you have excellent staff and you can leave them to get on

with lots of stuff in your absence. Maybe they produce brilliant

results.

Great.

But if you had some goals I guarantee you`ll all achieve more.

Lewis Carroll said "If you don`t know where you are going, any

road will get you there."

Without goals you can either take the short road or the long road

and you`ll still get nowhere.

One thing you need to understand about your brain is that it will

go all out to help you achieve your goals. Your Reticular

Activating System (a little group of cells that are probably the

most primitive in your brain) is the driving force for you to get

your goals. It filters all communication to your brain and stops

you going mad from information overload.

The good news is that the Reticular Activating System (RAS) can

be programmed to achieve the goals you want. That`s done
visualisation and "faking it before you make it".

achieved your goal. It works to make sure that you get the

benefits accruing from that goal. Which means that you then

achieve it! Simple, eh?

It`s so great I call the RAS the "Goal Scorer".

So how do you set goals?

Firstly dismiss the thought that they`re just for January the

1st. Or you set them once and then forget them. Goals don`t work

that way. A little later I`ll explain how you can use a method I

call SARAH to help you check your goals.

Now what are the most important things about setting goals?

The most important is that it must be important to you.

If it`s not no amount of goal setting will make you achieve it.

Do you have something worthy but boring that you`d rather not do?

You can put it off forever can`t you?

When you set goals you must promise yourself that you`ll achieve

them. If it`s a boring goal tie it to something interesting. I

can`t emphasis enough how important importance is to your

achievement of your goals.

Next you need to clearly decide what it is that you want to

acheive. An all embracing statement such as "All areas of my life

will work well" isn`t much use as a goal. It`s much too general

for your poor "goal scorer".

Instead you need to make each goal specific and so that your goal

scorer knows when it needs to be achieved you give it a time

limit.

The other secret to using the goal scorer is to phrase your goal

as though it`s already happened.

For example: "I`ve got 5 new clients who each paid me a ??5,000

retainer

Finally make sure that you will know in some measurable way that

a goal has been achieved. When that happens celebrate!

Now write the goals down. No I don`t mean into your computer.

Although you can put them in later. Write them longhand.

Also don`t overburden yourself with hundreds of goals. Focus on

writing specific goals for what is really important to you.

Ideally you should have about 7 to 10 goals to begin.

Later as you get used to achievement you can add more.

Once they`re written down put them some place that you can see

them every day. Don`t just look at the goals imagine yourself at

the point where they`ve been achieved. What can you see, smell,

taste, hear and feel at that moment and afterwards? Visualise

yourself as already having achieved your goal. Feels great

doesn`t it?

I promised you that I would introduce SARAH, my method for goal

checking.

SARAH stands for the following:

S - Set an achievable, important goal

A - Act. Start something on your way to achieving the goal

R - Review it regularly, either monthly or quarterly.

A - Ambitious, check that you have some ambitious goals

H - Honestly assess whether the goal needs changing and do it

If your goals start being completed long before you expect review

them more often!

These methods can be used for you or for your business. They work

just the same. Use them and watch how your results improve.

When you kick-off with the power of goals your business is going

to move in exactly the direction you want.

One bugle, no drums: the marines at Chosin Reservoir. - book reviews

Washington Monthly , March, 1987 by James R. Dickenson

One Bugle, No Drums: The Marines at Chosin Reservoir. The Korean War is a big
hole in most Americans` knowledge of history. In obscurity, it ranks right down
there with the War of 1812 and the Spanish American War.

But this "police action," whichlasted from 1950 to 1953, was a bloody business--nearly
55,000 Americans and almost a million Koreans and Chinese died on the harsh Asian
peninsula. In winter, they wre struck by howling winds and temperatures that dropped
to 40 degrees below zero. In summer, they were overwhelmed by heat. In the desperate
fighting around the Pusan Perimeter in 1950, U.S. forces fuffered nearly as many
casualties from heat exhaustion as from enemy fire.

But the Korean War was also,once the unprepared U.S. occupation forces in Japan
and the hastily-raised conscript army were shaken down and hardened by combat, the
occasion of some of the fines military feats in U.S. history.

Hopkins was the commandingofficer of one of the three infantry regiments of the
1st Marine Division--the division military historians contend was one of the finest
fighting forces, if not the finest ever, in the long annals of warfare.

Hopkins`s battalion made its surpriseattack in the middle of a sn ow storm on
the Chinese 178th Regiment that held the hills over the Funchilin Pass. Although
the Marines were outnumbered three to one, the Chinese regiment was nearly destroyed.
That victory was crucial to the safe retreat of thousands of Marines and U.N. forces
from the mountains near Chosin Reservoir.

If One Bugle, No Drums showsU.S. forces at thei rbest, it also shows some of
their leaders at their worst. The tactical brilliance of General Douglas MacArthur,
the U.N. forces` commander, deserted him after his daring amphibious landing at
Inchon. The North Korean army was destroyed, and South Korea`s territory was restored,
but MacArthur convinced himself and most of his subordinate Army commanders that
there was no reason to believe that the Chinese would enter the war even if the
U.N. forces drove all the way north to the Yalu River--despite growing evidence
from displaced North Koreans that thousands of Chinese troops were hiding in the
villages, forests, hills, and mines of that desolate country. At least 300,000 chinese
troops were already in North Korea when the Marines and the Army landed.

The Army commanders acceptedMacArthur`s assurances and neglected to put out adequate
patrols and other security, which cost them tragically. Major General Oliver P.
Smith, the commander of the Marine division, took his local intelligence seriously,
which was one reason his division survived intact.

Although the Marines and Armywere to attack from different directions through
the mountains, their commanders couldn`t communicate directly with each other, but
had to go through headquarters in Tokyo--one of the main reasons we were defeated
in North Korea. (And a lesson that was forgotten in the Grenada operation.)

Hopkins offers another majorreason. Although he credits tactical air support
of the ground forces as the most effective backup they had, he blames the indiscriminate
bombing of "strtegic" targets, many of which had no military value whatsoever, for
turning the North Korean civilians against the U.N. forces. As a result, the North
Koreans began to help the Chinese with their supply routes--even though the Chinese,
who were ill equipped for the brutal winter and therefore desperate for food and
shelter, had forced many Koreans out of their homes and villages. The rate of Chinese
artillery fire increased substantially. Until then, says Hopkins, the Koreans have
been willing sources of intelligence for the Americans. It was a lesson that should
have been heeded 15 years later in Vietnam.